PARIS
\nFrench nun Sister Andre, at 118, is now the oldest known person in the world, as claimed, following the death of a Japanese woman one year her senior. Japan\u2019s Kane Tanaka, deemed the world\u2019s oldest by the International Database on Longevity (IDL) and Guinness World Records, died aged 119 on Monday.
\n\u201cSister Andre indeed becomes the oldest, and by far, since the next oldest is a Polish woman who is 115,\u201d said Laurent Toussaint, a computer scientist and amateur tracker for the IDL as well as the French institute of demographic studies (INED).
\nLucile Randon, better known as Sister Andre, was born in southern France on February 11, 1904, even before World War I, which was still a decade away. Sister Andre lives a happy life at a nursing home in Toulon along the Mediterranean coast.
\n\u201cShe\u2019s happy, she likes very much this attention,\u201d said the home\u2019s communications director David Tavella, adding that a short press conference would be held Tuesday morning.
\nShe begins every day with breakfast and then a morning mass, though her eyes can no longer see.
\n\u201cBut it\u2019s just another step, because her real goal is to overtake Jeanne Calment,\u201d a French woman who was reportedly 122-years-old when she died in 1997, Tavella said.
\nAccording to reports, Sister Andre got a handwritten New Year\u2019s greeting from President Emmanuel Macron this year, among the many letters and boxes of chocolates sent by well-wishers.
\n\u201cI was always admired for my wisdom and intelligence, but now people could care less because I\u2019m stubborn,\u201d she jokingly told an AFP in an interview for her 118th tour around the sun.
\n\u201cI thinking of getting out of this business but they won\u2019t let me,\u201d she said.
\nLucile Randon previously worked as a governess in Paris — a period she once noted as the happiest time of her life — before taking her religious vows with the Daughters of Charity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PARIS French nun Sister Andre, at 118, is now the oldest known person in the world, as claimed, following the death of a Japanese woman one year her senior. Japan\u2019s Kane Tanaka, deemed the world\u2019s oldest by the International Database on Longevity (IDL) and Guinness World Records, died aged 119 on Monday. \u201cSister Andre indeed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-257595","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n